625: Reuben
Reuben, A.K.A. Experiment 625, is an illegal genetic experiment created by Jumba Jookiba, and former villain from the Lilo & Stitch franchise. He is one of the failed prototypes of Stitch. He serves as a minor character in Stitch! The Movie and a recurring antagonist in The Series. He later becomes a protagonist in Leroy & Stitch, and serves as one of the antagonists in Stitch!. He is designed to be abnormally strong, virtually indestructible, super intelligent and very mischievous...even equipped with more lingual skills. The main flaw in his design was laziness; the most strenuous thing he did was make sandwiches, albeit delicious ones. Before the events of Leroy & Stitch, Reuben didn't do much besides make sandwiches all the time, much to Gantu's anger. His one true place is with Gantu as his galley officer. He is voiced by Rob Paulsen. He was activated by Gantu and Hämsterviel in Stitch! The Movie. One of the few experiments that can speak English like Nosy, Heckler, Slick, Manners, Forehead, Bonnie, Clyde, Squeak, Stitch, and Gigi. Personality Despite having all the powers of Stitch, Reuben is incredibly lazy. However, during the events of Leroy & Stitch, Reuben finally made something of himself. He is actually very friendly, though he often makes wisecracks, but is usually quite crabby toward others when they disturb him (especially Gantu). He has tagged along with Gantu and Dr. Hämsterviel during many villainous plots, although he has stated that he doesn't really care who wins. Reuben constantly insults Gantu's bumbling nature, but secretly sees him as his best friend. He can be considered somewhat of a coward, especially when Gantu forces him to battle Stitch on occasions. Unlike Gantu, however, he shows no fear of Hämsterviel, who apparently resents Reuben because of his laziness. He also has a rather odd love for sandwiches. Most of the time, he is seen with either a finished sandwich in his hand or making one. His sandwiches are apparently very tasty as even Gantu asks for some. Aside from this, Reuben is incredibly intelligent, especially when it comes to dealing with the experiments. Although he was the second to last experiment to be created, Reuben has excessive knowledge of every experiment, even the ones created far before his time, such as Ace. There are also a few instances where Reuben acts like kind of an "inside man" for Lilo and Stitch, like telling Lilo how to beat Experiment 627. Description Reuben is a golden yellow (in the Disney Adventures magazine comics before Lilo & Stitch, he was blue), chubby koala/marmot-like experiment. He resembles a chubbier version of Stitch, with light golden patches around his eyes, a light gold stomach from his chin down, short ears that flop down at the sides of his head, three small antennae that look like a tuft of fluffy fur, pointed fingers, short stumpy legs, dark golden hourglass-shaped marking on his back and two flat teeth sticking out of his mouth and overlapping his bottom lip as well as two extra, retractable arms, three retractable spines tipped with white and a very dark gold that run down his back (the first spine is the shortest, then longest, then medium) and sharp retractable claws on his front and back paws (middle paws only have claws out). He wears an orange spacesuit with an oval consisting of a dark orange border and cream center on his chest and each of his sleeves and patches consisting of a dark orange border and vermilion center on each of his legs, black belt with a dark orange square buckle, both black collar, cuffs, and anklets. Reuben is activated by Gantu and Hämsterviel using a glass of water in an attempt to interrogate Jumba. Reuben serves as Gantu's wisecracking sidekick during the series. After receiving his name and working alongside Lilo in Leroy & Stitch, he found his one true place alongside a newly recommissioned (and redeemed) Captain Gantu as his galley officer. History Reuben is experiment number 625 of Dr. Jumba Jookiba's original 626 experiments. He is preceded by Angel (624) and followed by Stitch (626). Reuben was introduced as experiment 625 in Stitch! The Movie. His dehydrated experiment pod falls out of the pod container during the rush to hide it from Gantu, who later finds it on the floor while he is interrogating Jumba (Jumba says that the pod is a "ping-pong ball," but Gantu knows that this is a lie). Being unable to make Jumba tell him where the rest of the pods are, Gantu kidnaps him and takes him along with the pod to Hämsterviel on his spaceship. Hämsterviel is initially disappointed in Gantu's failure to bring all of the experiments, but then decides to activate 625 (who Jumba says has all the powers of 626) to torture Jumba into revealing the location of the others. 625 is reactivated and left inside Jumba's detention cell. After waiting outside the door and not hearing any cries of torture from within, Hämsterviel peeks inside and sees that 625 is eating a sandwich instead. Jumba tells him that 625's design flaw is that he's very lazy and only makes sandwiches, leaving Hämsterviel significantly "irked." Being useless, 625 remains on Hämsterviel's ship, making sandwiches and sarcastic remarks. After Lilo and Stitch are captured, he annoys Gantu by using a security alert to summon him to help order bologna sausage. 625 happens to be on Gantu's ship when Lilo, Stitch, and Sparky (221) disable its navigation equipment, resulting in him being stranded on Earth with Gantu. 625 ends up becoming Gantu's sidekick in Lilo & Stitch: The Series and spends most of his time relaxing, making sandwiches, and making fun of Gantu. He usually stands on the sidelines, making snide remarks as he watches Gantu fail his missions, but will help out if he feels so inclined. Although Gantu and 625 are often at odds they share some tender moments: watching TV together, relaxing at the beach on a day off, attending a carnival, and in a rare display of compassion, 625 even fusses over Gantu when the captain is sick. On occasion, 625 has also sided with Lilo as an anti-hero. His reasons for doing so range from spite, to convenience, to moral principles. 625 is never given a name during the course of the series, though Lilo calls him "Sandwich Boy" in the episode "627". In one episode, when Gantu and Stitch are having an argument about who should be the leader of them, Lilo, 625, Jumba and Pleakley, 625 nominates Lilo as leader, and with a majority vote she becomes their leader. Thanks to this, they're able to defeat the experiment Splodyhead (619) by working together. At the beginning of Leroy & Stitch, Lilo and her ohana are rewarded for capturing all of Jumba's experiments and finding the one true place they belong. Gantu wonders why Lilo never bothered catching 625, and 625 guesses that the one place he truly belongs is being Gantu's buddy. Gantu, suggesting that was his problem all along, decides to leave Earth and 625 behind in order to break Dr. Hämsterviel out of prison. Later, Lilo visits Gantu's old ship, looking for an intergalactic communicator to contact Stitch with. She finds 625 filling the ship with sandwiches, saying that he's going to start "the best spaceship-shaped sandwich shop on the island." She gives him a homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwich as a peace offering. 625 is moved by this act, since no one had ever made him a sandwich before, but is suspicious of Lilo's motives and refuses to fix Gantu's broken communicator when she asks him. She then realizes that she never gave 625 a name. After rejecting Patty, Monte, and Pita Pita Sandwich Eata, 625 chooses the name Reuben. The newly-christened Reuben asks if his new name gives him "official cousin status," "full ohana rights," and "all that aloha stuff." Lilo says he'll get aloha if he gives some back in return, so he decides to fix the communicator. After learning that Stitch is in danger, Lilo asks Reuben to help her fix Gantu's ship so they can rescue him. Reuben again refuses, but Lilo tells him that, since he's the closest experiment to Stitch, if he stopped making sandwiches he could make something of himself. Reuben decides to try it, revealing to her surprise that he really does have all the same powers as Stitch. Working together, they quickly repair Gantu's ship and fly to Planet Turo. The two of them are captured by Dr. Hämsterviel, but join up with the recently fired Gantu (and later Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley) to escape. Reuben does his part in fighting during the Leroy clone battle along with all of the other experiments. When they perform the "Aloha Oe" concert, Reuben sings along with Lilo and Stitch and plays the saxophone. In the end, Gantu is offered back his former job as captain of the Galactic Armada when Stitch steps down. He accepts the job on one condition: That Reuben joins him as his galley officer, proving that his one true place actually was with Gantu. Stitch! In the Stitch! anime, it is revealed in the English dub that he and Gantu were fired from the Galactic Armada because of some incident involving bad karaoke singing. Since they needed money, they once again sought out Hämsterviel for employment. Since then, Reuben has been in almost every other episode of the series with Gantu and Hämsterviel. In the third season of the anime, Hämsterviel modifies Reuben to be able to use his powers as often as possible, giving him the ability to easily defeat Stitch. This transformation also gave him a "bad boy" personality to go with his power, and it is because of this that Angel dumped Stitch for Reuben until Stitch saved her from plummeting to Earth. Reuben was snapped out of this trance when he saw someone making a sandwich incorrectly. Reuben was last seen in the final episode of the anime when he, Gantu, Hämsterviel, and Delia are put in prison by the Grand Councilwoman. Abilities Reuben has the same powers as Stitch, with the addition of advanced language programming (the ability to speak perfect English, with an inexplicable Brooklyn accent) and the ability to make sandwiches. Due to his laziness, laid back nature, and lack of violent mentality, Jumba considered him a failed project. Reuben only uses his powers a few rare times until Lilo persuades him to use them for good in Leroy & Stitch. Like Stitch, he has an extra set of retractable arms, three retractable back spines, super strength, and the ability to walk on the ceiling (though he is out of practice). He also proves to be an excellent mechanic, fixing Gantu's abandoned ship in less than a day, using pickle juice as a conductor, and can play the saxophone. During the battle scene in Aloha Stadium, it is shown that even his sandwich-making skills have a place in battle, when he throws sandwiches at the Leroy clones to make them slip and fall. However powerful Reuben potentially may be, he does have one physical weaknesses – he is ticklish. But despite saying otherwise in "Snafu", he gets tickled on his sides and foot by Tickle-Tummy (275), where he finally admits it. Unlike Stitch, Reuben can swim or at least tolerate being in water, but he doesn't seem to be anywhere near as durable, suffering fairly painful-looking injuries after helping train Heat (609), Plasmoid (617), Thresher (544) and Hammerface (033) for Gantu (however, as it has been stated more than once that he has all of Stitch's powers, he may very well be as durable, and the pain he received may be psychological in nature or from a lack of mental attitude to tolerate pain as well as Stitch). He may seem a bit heavy-headed, but has a very soft spot for Lilo. Gallery Vlcsnap-2013-01-06-18h21m04s76.png|Reuben's experiment pod vlcsnap-2013-01-07-08h42m50s17.png Vlcsnap-2013-02-28-15h43m07s214.png Vlcsnap-2013-01-07-08h55m25s152.png|"Ah. Grilled cheese." Vlcsnap-2012-12-21-16h45m49s188.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-19-10h14m58s121.png Yin-Yang_625.jpg|"I was just looking for...a, uh...place to dig a trap!" Vlcsnap-2012-12-21-16h42m23s183.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-27-14h50m12s235.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-19-09h41m00s232.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-19-09h27m35s105.png yinyangepisode.PNG Vlcsnap-2012-12-25-16h55m10s76.png|"Oh, great. Digusting and evil!" Vlcsnap-2012-12-25-16h56m15s216.png|After being blasted by 627 Vlcsnap-2012-12-19-09h34m13s254.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-19-09h35m06s6.png|After being blasted again by 627 vlcsnap-2012-12-19-09h35m32s24.png|Calling to tell Lilo how to defeat 627 Vlcsnap-2012-12-19-09h35m50s169.png|627 kicking Reuben Xmas625.jpg vlcsnap-2013-01-08-13h28m58s64.png vlcsnap-2013-01-08-13h33m33s251.png|"Hey, keeping down out here. I'm taking a Christmas nap!" vlcsnap-2013-01-08-13h33m40s73.png vlcsnap-2013-01-08-13h33m48s144.png Vlcsnap-2013-01-08-12h20m10s255.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-21-18h50m05s250.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-21-18h49m21s54.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-22-11h22m42s105.png|Gossiping with Nosy 121242142.jpg Hurt 625.jpg vlcsnap-2012-12-22-11h46m44s205.png vlcsnap-2012-12-22-11h52m17s201.png|Reuben giant size Vlcsnap-2012-12-22-11h51m58s15.png vlcsnap-2013-04-25-12h52m49s99.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-20-14h23m19s83.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-21-19h45m22s150.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-30-17h11m04s233.png|"How do you burp a large shark alien baby?" Vlcsnap-2012-12-21-20h10m48s48.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-21-20h29m43s112.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-27-15h26m04s19.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-21-22h13m37s7.png vlcsnap-2012-12-21-22h13m48s116.png vlcsnap-2012-12-21-22h14m11s22.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-20-15h28m24s2.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-22-10h28m23s31.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-22-10h30m28s6.png|"Yeah, remember I mentioned some bad news?" Vlcsnap-2012-12-25-14h50m34s46.png Vlcsnap-2012-06-30-19h39m40s79.png vlcsnap-2013-01-14-21h08m12s169.png vlcsnap-2013-01-14-21h16m43s159.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-22-09h42m14s9.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-22-09h41m19s212.png Vlcsnap-2013-01-08-09h37m10s237.png vlcsnap-2013-01-11-21h14m51s191.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-22-08h53m55s185.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-22-09h01m06s107.png|"Ehh, kick him in the rear?" Vlcsnap-2012-07-23-12h45m52s6.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-20-15h57m19s194.png vlcsnap-2013-01-16-18h51m12s35.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-23-11h41m59s3.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-23-11h44m00s166.png Vlcsnap-2013-04-25-12h24m12s115.png Vlcsnap-2012-07-14-21h30m44s10.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-20-14h30m19s211.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-20-14h31m53s139.png|Driving an ice cream truck Vlcsnap-2012-07-01-09h33m44s194.png|Being ticked by Tickle-Tummy Vlcsnap-2012-12-20-14h56m55s50.png Vlcsnap-2012-11-29-16h19m47s81.png Vlcsnap-2012-11-29-16h19m57s187.png Vlcsnap-2012-11-29-16h20m11s77.png Vlcsnap-2012-07-03-21h06m24s86.png Vlcsnap-2013-03-14-10h39m21s104.png Vlcsnap-2013-03-14-10h39m31s236.png Vlcsnap-2013-03-14-10h40m13s143.png Vlcsnap-2012-11-29-16h31m41s247.png Vlcsnap-2012-11-29-16h32m35s110.png Vlcsnap-2012-07-03-22h00m51s240.png|"I don't know, its lunch time?" Vlcsnap-2012-06-02-18h23m51s153.png Vlcsnap-2012-07-03-21h05m07s94.png|Reuben after falling off the ceiling Vlcsnap-2012-08-02-18h46m56s87.png Vlcsnap-2012-08-02-18h42m36s65.png vlcsnap-2013-03-14-10h53m39s18.png|"The aloha you give always comes back to you." vlcsnap-2012-12-19-22h19m46s75.png Vlcsnap-2013-03-14-10h57m42s156.png Vlcsnap-2013-03-14-10h58m32s113.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-19-22h18m58s76.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-19-22h05m36s21.png Vlcsnap-2012-07-10-15h41m21s150.png Vlcsnap-2013-05-21-14h31m45s226.png Vlcsnap-2012-08-02-19h20m21s155.png|Playing a saxophone Vlcsnap-2012-12-19-22h25m56s197.png Vlcsnap-2012-07-04-10h11m48s151.png Vlcsnap-2012-10-05-22h11m15s49.png Vlcsnap-2012-11-29-16h04m36s196.png Vlcsnap-2012-11-29-16h20m32s34.png Vlcsnap-2012-11-29-16h34m06s240.png Vlcsnap-2012-11-29-16h34m41s44.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-20-13h45m04s204.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-21-23h50m18s172.png Vlcsnap-2013-01-05-09h31m46s92.png Vlcsnap-2013-01-05-11h54m21s157.png Vlcsnap-2013-01-07-07h43m46s172.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-22-08h54m15s119.png Vlcsnap-2012-06-30-19h38m54s191.png Vlcsnap-2012-11-01-13h37m11s139.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-21-23h50m12s96.png Vlcsnap-2012-12-21-20h11m17s68.png vlcsnap-2013-01-14-21h24m33s244.png vlcsnap-2013-01-16-18h51m37s56.png vlcsnap-2013-01-16-18h52m50s22.png vlcsnap-2013-01-18-18h00m23s149.png ScreenCapture 04.03.13 10-57-06.jpg reubenanime1.png|Reuben in Stitch! anime reubenanime2.png|Modified Reuben GANTU_~1.JPG Stitch hamsterveil and gantu.jpg Stitch day.jpg Stitch and hamsterveil and co .jpg Rueben stitch.jpg Gantu s scared of a catu.jpg stitch_at_library_with_rueban.jpg 625 original.png|Reuben's original appearance Sandwichfp6.png Old625w.png 62555.png Stack_1.jpg Stack.jpg 195.png 196.png Perefect.jpg|Reuben after winning the game Sandwich Stacker Bad.jpg|Reuben after losing the game Sandwich Stacker panes95.jpg Reubenscreen.jpg Trivia *Reuben first appeared in the promotional Disney Adventures comics released before Lilo & Stitch, where he acts as Jumba's lazy sidekick and helps him test Stitch's abilities. His physical appearance in the comics is different, having blue-green fur, beadier eyes, and a larger belly, but he retains his personality and love of sandwiches. These Disney Adventures comics have since been retconned by the events described in Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, where Stitch is apprehended directly after his creation and Reuben is nowhere to be seen. In the promotional Lilo & Stitch: The Series comics, his eyes and build change to reflect his new look, but his blue-green fur color remains the same. *Reuben makes a short appearance at the end of the game Lilo & Stitch 2: Hämsterviel Havoc for Game Boy Advance, where he offers the defeated Gantu a breadless cheese sandwich. This screenshot of him was taken from the episode "Splodyhead". *Reuben appears, along with several other Lilo & Stitch characters, in a parody of the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical, which was broadcast as part of the High School Musical: Around the World one-year anniversary special. *Reuben's pod color is normally blue. However, in a few screenshots of Stitch! The Movie, it was purple. *Reuben is described by the experiment computer screen as, "Experiment 625 Primary function: Destruction of populated areas". *In "627", Lilo referred to 625 as "Sandwich Boy" when he telephoned her, though it is unknown how he learned or obtained the Pelekais' phone number.